I saw a reference to not being able to fully change your MAC address (the manufacturer componant) on an earlier post. It didn't get any comments and I thought it deserverd further discussion.....

I am seeing strange results when I try to match my MAC address to another card, but I think it is a numerical issue rather than an inability to change the manufacturer componant of the MAC.

When I try to change my Orinoco cards MAC address to match the MAC of a cisco card, everything looks good except for the first two digits. the Aironet cards use MACs that start with 00 40 96 XX XX XX. When I change the MAC on my orinoco card to try and match it (using win2000 registry hack) it changes to 02 40 96 XX XX XX. Even though I put the number in right, the first number keeps comming out as 02 rather than 00.

Now, if this were an issue with NT forcing you to keep the MAC comnponant associated with the manufacturer, then more than the first digit would be kept the same. Similarly, I have successfully changed the card to FE ED DE AD BE EF (Thanks TRON), with no problems.

So, since it looks like it isn't some kind of fail-safe preventing you from using the MAC from another card, what is going on?

Is there some kind of conversion between decimal and hex that could be causing this?

Anyone else have an opinion on this issue?


Barax